Like Father Like Sons? Gaddafi's Fascinating Family

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Image 1 of 15: Saadi Gaddafi - Age 36 and married, a man with a stormy past who is known for recklessness, as clashes with the police in Europe, taking drugs and alcohol as well as throwing decadent parties. Suitably involved in the film industry, investing $100m.

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Image 1 of 15: Aline Skaf- Former Lebanese fashion model, still Christian, wife to ‘play boy’ Hannibal. Age 30, Notoriously beaten badly by husband and denied entrance back to Lebanon when she tried to fly back since the crimes of her father- in-law.

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Image 1 of 15: Ayesha al-Gaddafi- Age 34, married to father's cousin. Only daughter she is a lawyer, who joined the defence team of executed former leader, Saddam Hussein. A book on her life is called Princess of Peace. She is known as the Claudia Schiffer of Libya.

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Image 1 of 15: Hannibal - Age 34, his rock- star loud behavior with wife abroad has triggered a diplomatic row with Switzerland in past. In 2008, he was arrested in a Geneva hotel after two of his servants accused him of assault.

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Image 1 of 15: Ayesha - Known to be his favorite child, she is closest to her father, notwithstanding the fierce female competition among her father’s guard and nurses. On her Dad: “he is my remedy against pain and my fortress against grief.”

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Image 1 of 15: Hannibal - Worked in oil exports for Libya's General National Maritime Transport Co. Not shying from the media spotlight, nor attracting positive press, he was accused of beating his pregnant partner in Paris, and later in a London hotel.

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Image 1 of 15: Khamis Gaddafi - a captain in the Libyan army who operates his own special forces unit, having received military training in Russia. He headed up the suppression of protests in Benghazi.

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Image 1 of 15: Mutassim Gaddafi - He met with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, as his father’s national security advisor. Though one wonders if he can be trusted to represent his father after attempting to oust him once.

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Image 1 of 15: Saadi Gaddafi - A former footballer who had a very brief career in Italy's Series A, he is a shareholder in his favorite football club -- Italy's Juventus -- and is also head of the Libyan national team.

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Image 1 of 15: Mutassim Gaddafi - A lieutenant colonel in the Libyan army, he once allegedly masterminded a coup attempt against his father, to be later forgiven. He is now National Security Advisor to his father and captain of his own unit in the army.

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Image 1 of 15: Safia al-Gaddafi: Gaddafi's second wife and mother of seven of his biological children. The couple also adopted a son and daughter, one, Milad, who has survived.

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Image 1 of 15: Saif al Islam - An architect and eldest son from the second marriage and not on good terms with his brothers Mutassim, Hannibal, Saadi and sister Ayesha. Most known for his chairmanship of the Gaddafi charity foundation.

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Image 1 of 15: Saif al-Arab Gaddafi - one of the youngest sons, he keeps his head low and lives in Germany. The most noise to come from him has more precisely come from his car engine. In 2008 his Ferrari was clamped by German police because of a noisy exhaust.

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Image 1 of 15: Saif al-Islam- He has been attacked by conservatives groups for a debauched lifestyle of women and partying.

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Image 1 of 15: Mamrdth Galena Colo Etnyastica - The nurse who spent a lot of time with the family (or its head) before running away, according to Wikileaks.

Gaddafi’s clan have been described as a Motley but dangerous lot. Nothing bland from the seed of such a scandalous father.Though he is known for attracting a crowd, his children are, with the exception of the more private Saif al-Arab, hardly prone to withdrawal from the public eye either.

Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi has a total of eight children, one with his first wife Fathia Khaled and seven with his second wife Safia Farkash, once a nurse. A third woman, his now nurse, is on the family scene, not surprising since he has a reputation of getting close to his nurses.

Adopted son and nephew, Milad is credited with saving Gaddafi's life during the 1986 U.S. bombing of the Gaddafi compound.His other adopted daughter, Hanna, died in the American bombing of Tripoli in 1986 at the age of four.

Possible heirs are many. With the daughter already in the legal/diplomatic line of work, and on the right side of her father, and claiming revolutionary blood runs through her veins.Mutassim having attempted a coup for power and Saif al-Islam designated spokesman since the Libyan disturbances began. He gave a speech in February in staunch support of his father.